My mom and dad found the perfect home for us in Temple City. We didn’t own it but it satisfied all of our needs. Mom had her beauty shop in the front rooms of the house, Dad had his sign shop in the little single car garage in the back, and I had my secret world under a huge old pepper tree in the back. The pepper fronds hung to the ground and I had to part them to enter my Tarzan world. Dad had hung a swing and trapeze for me and my imagination filled in everything else. Of course I was Jane, Tarzan’s wife and one of my dolls was Boy. Oh, the adventures we had under that old tree. There were monkeys and apes from my imagination and we had some narrow escapes. On Saturdays I’d take my 12 cents and walk to the movie theater a block away and watch more Tarzan movies to fuel my jungle life episodes.
I drove by the property on the corner of Reno and Las Tunas not long ago. It’s now a parking lot for a K-Mart. But never mind, I have my memories and it will always be my favorite spot. Isn’t it wonderful to imagine and dream?
